Lannan Foundation Praises $80 Million Gift

With a new $80 million gift, the Lannan Foundation in Lake Worth should eventually start attracting art lovers from across the country, its new director said on Thursday.

``There will be a very large program to purchase art by emerging artists, as well as to augment the artists presently in the museum,`` said Bonnie Clearwater, art programs director.

The gift, announced this week by arts leaders who say it makes the Lannan one of the country`s most powerful art-buying museums, comes from the estate of J. Patrick Lannan, an ITT director who lived in Palm Beach.

Lannan, who had collected some 5,000 paintings, sculptures and ceramics before his death in 1983, started the foundation in 1981 in an abandoned 1930s art deco movie house at 601 Lake Ave.

With the gift, the Lannan will continue to house about a quarter of the collection, and the rest will be available for loan to museums all over the country. The process should begin sometime after April, when the funds become available.

``The collection for the first time will have national recognition,`` said William E. Ray, executive director of the Arts Council of Palm Beach County Inc. ``It is one of the most unique, complete fulfillments of a single collector`s vision in America.``

``South Florida is on a phenomenal growth curve,`` he said, ``and the Lannan collection adds a national treasure on loan from South Florida to the world. It will be another asset in our visual bank.``

Ray also applauded the selection of Clearwater, curator of the Mark Rothko Foundation of New York.

``She`s a New York-based newcomer with a national track record as a curator and scholar,`` he said. ``To me, this means the Lannan means business for the enlargement and promotion of the collection.``

Hired in December, Clearwater is commuting from New York and plans to settle here in the spring with her husband, James, director of the Grey Art Gallery at New York University.

Federal law mandates that the foundation spend at least 5 percent of its assets -- about $5 million -- annually. At the Lannan, Clearwater said, new purchases will focus on young and emerging artists.

The museum also hopes to use the gift to develop a grant program that will support exhibitions or commission projects by young and contemporary artists, she said. That project would not get under way for two years, Clearwater added.

Art objects currently not on display stay in temporary storage areas. The Lannan may eventually build a permanent storage area, as well as a study center, ``so even if the art is not on view, scholars or curators can study it,`` Clearwater said.